The present invention deals with a process of hydrating whole dry grains and other feedstuffs in order to enhance nutritional value of the feedstuffs and grain for livestocks.
Recent publications have described a process by which a higher feeding value of livestock feedstuffs may be accomplished by hydrating whole dry grain. In these processes, the grain is sprayed with water in order to reconstitute the dry grains to a moisture level of 20-28% based on the weight of the reconstituted grain. A moisture content of up to 30-35% is desirable but cannot be achieved by these prior art processes because the amount of water added to the grain is limited to the water adhering to the outer surface of the dry grain. If the water is added to the dry grain stored in a silo, excess water percolates or flows immediately to the bottom of the storage tank and usually emits as a runoff from the structure. This condition makes it practically impossible to add enough water to dry grain to hydrate it to the preferred moisture content. Also because the added water drains to the bottom of the structure, grain in the lower part of the storage tank will be much wetter than grain in the upper portion of the silo. Frequently, the grain near the top of the storage will present a favorable environment for the growth of fungi. These fungi may cause loss of nutritional value and may actually add toxic substances to the grain. Thus, current processes for reconstituting (hydrating) dry grain used for animal feed are not adequate. Because of the failure of current processes to permit addition of exact amounts of liquid to the stored grain and in addition the failure of current processes to maintain even distribution of liquid throughout the column of stored grain, it is essentially impossible to use other than water as the hydrating medium. This is a serious deficiency since most grains can benefit from the addition of certain nutrient enrichment when fed to livestock. The preferred point of adding these nutrients would be when the grain was mixed with water and stored in a silo.